an issue of representation

It was either I continue with my transcription duties or sit and write a blog entry. I figured blogging would be way more interesting than trying to make my fingers type as fast as the voice I was hearing on the other side of my headset. I think I'm at my most distracted when I have to transcribe or listen to recorded interviews. Anyway, to help get myself out of the mountain of un-transcribed interviews I've allocated a specific day for each freaking interview - a make shift roster in the hope that this will spur me on to finish this boring task and get on with the analysis. A draft case study needing writing awaits! Due date 15 September.

But I also needed to write up my supervision notes, which meant I had to listen to the recording I made -see no getting away from listening to recordings this week - and of course I get a more refined, sophisticated sense of the discussion from the 'second reading/listening'. An important issue raised during supervision, and one which has occupied me for a while now, is how I'm going to approach how I represent my participants in my thesis. On a simple level I need to make a decision about how I will anonymise my participants - even though many of them weren't that bothered about me protecting their identity. But they signed a consent form that says I would do this, so I have to do it. Some even picked their own pseudonyms. So will I chose to de-gender and de-racialise their identities or maintain this aspect and simply change their names? The more fundamental issue of course, and the one that concerns me most, is what are the consequences of such a choice in relation to how participants come across or how they get represented in the thesis, as reflective of the broader socio-political context that is South Africa. Will they then simply become yet another example of how black-african, coloured, white people or women 'behave' within an educational context, maybe reflective of rampant stereotypes about how they should or shouldn't, do or don't, behave? Will my thesis simply reinforce negative, destructive, one-dimensional views and perceptions of these different groups and is it my duty as a responsible, ethical researcher and South African to ensure that how I portray my participants doesn't perpetuate such stereotypes. I don't have a answer to these questions and concerns, I've been reading around the area of race and representation within the SA context and I'm interested in exploring post-colonial theorisation more in the hope that I will come to some workable solution. And I haven't even included the debates I need to have about how I will represent myself in my thesis.

What is clear is that an additional angle, for inclusion in my thesis, has been raised by this concern; namely the need for a substantial discussion of research ethics, especially the contradiction that lay between theory and practice when applied to the issue of confidentiality and privacy within different contextual realities - a discussion I think that started way back in my MRes year.

 Goodness, guess what? I'm talking about my thesis as if it is a reality...wow! It really has begun.

the ethics of fieldwork and blogging

My fieldwork has started - and while that might sound serious or fundamental - in reality nothing much has really happened, and it's been a rather mundane couple of days. My focus at the moment is on 'blending in' as much as possible.
BUT I've been wondering... how do I deal with the ethics of blogging about my fieldwork experiences?

I shouldn't really be blogging about my fieldwork is what I think is the ethical thing to do. In my communication to participants and the consent forms I hope they will all sign - I provide reassurances that I will protect their identities and their right to confidentiality. Blogging about my experiences flies in the face of all those reassurances. Even without specifically identifying particular people, mentioning events and happenings in the research site on this blog will mean that I am using information gained for research purposes on a platform that is clearly outside the academic environment - the only environment I indicated where I would use the data I gathered. I don't have a solution at this point - but I also know that I want to be able to reflect and comment about my experiences through this platform, so its a complex and very moral dilemma I need to resolve.

On the HERD publication front - I'm awaiting a second opinion - promising??? well I think it could go either way, for or against the previous feedback-on-feedback I received. But either way I'll feel more reassured that I stayed true to myself, my own unease, a sense that something was not right. Of course all these delays are eating away at my revision time - less than 17 days to submission - and will ultimately put more pressure on me.

Tomorrow I go to the Mobilities Language and Literacy conference which I am really looking forward to. I will get to see all the BIG names in the varied fields of language, linguistics and literacies in THE FLESH. All the big Chiefs (and yes they are mostly men but probably more of the Pilgrim variety) will be in action - although I suspect the little Indians will have more interesting things to say. I will also get to see some of my favourite Capetonian colleagues and friends and connect and network.

Now to write up my fieldnotes...